Button Widget

Categories: Widgets

Button Widgetversion added: 1.8

Description: Themeable buttons and button sets.

QuickNavExamples

Options

Methods

Events

Button enhances standard form elements like buttons, inputs and anchors to themeable buttons with appropriate hover and active styles.

In addition to basic push buttons, radio buttons and checkboxes (inputs of type radio and checkbox) can be converted to buttons. Their associated label is styled to appear as the button, while the underlying input is updated on click. For the association to work properly, give the input an id attribute, and refer to that in the label's for attribute. Don't nest the input inside the label, as that causes accessibility problems.

In order to group radio buttons, Button also provides an additional widget, called Buttonset. Buttonset is used by selecting a container element (which contains the radio buttons) and calling .buttonset(). Buttonset will also provide visual grouping, and therefore should be used whenever you have a group of buttons. It works by selecting all descendants and applying .button() to them. You can enable and disable a button set, which will enable and disable all contained buttons. Destroying a button set also calls each button's destroy method. For grouped radio and checkbox buttons, it's recommended to use a fieldset with a legend to provide an accessible group label.

When using an input of type button, submit or reset, support is limited to plain text labels with no icons.

Theming

The button widget uses the jQuery UI CSS framework to style its look and feel. If button specific styling is needed, the following CSS class names can be used:

  • ui-button: The DOM element that represents the button. This element will additionally have one of the following classes depending on the text and icons option: ui-button-text-only, ui-button-icon-only, ui-button-icons-only, ui-button-text-icons.
    • ui-button-icon-primary: The element used to display the button's primary icon. This will only be present if a primary icon is provided in the icons option.
    • ui-button-text: The container around the textual content of the button.
    • ui-button-icon-secondary: The element used to display the button's secondary icon. This will only be present if a secondary icon is provided in the icons option.
  • ui-buttonset: The outer container of Buttonsets.

Dependencies

Additional Notes:

  • This widget requires some functional CSS, otherwise it won't work. If you build a custom theme, use the widget's specific CSS file as a starting point.

Options

disabled 

Type: Boolean
Default: false
Disables the button if set to true.
Code examples:

Initialize the button with the disabled option specified:

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$( ".selector" ).button({
  disabled: true
});

Get or set the disabled option, after initialization:

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// Getter
var disabled = $( ".selector" ).button( "option", "disabled" );
 
// Setter
$( ".selector" ).button( "option", "disabled", true );

icons 

Type: Object
Default: { primary: null, secondary: null }

Icons to display, with or without text (see text option). By default, the primary icon is displayed on the left of the label text and the secondary is displayed on the right. The positioning can be controlled via CSS.

The value for the primary and secondary properties must match an icon class name, e.g., "ui-icon-gear". For using only one icon: icons: { primary: "ui-icon-locked" }. For using two icons: icons: { primary: "ui-icon-gear", secondary: "ui-icon-triangle-1-s" }.

Code examples:

Initialize the button with the icons option specified:

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$( ".selector" ).button({
  icons: { primary: "ui-icon-gear", secondary: "ui-icon-triangle-1-s" }
});

Get or set the icons option, after initialization:

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// Getter
var icons = $( ".selector" ).button( "option", "icons" );
 
// Setter
$( ".selector" ).button( "option", "icons", { primary: "ui-icon-gear", secondary: "ui-icon-triangle-1-s" } );

label 

Type: String
Default: null
Text to show in the button. When not specified (null), the element's HTML content is used, or its value attribute if the element is an input element of type submit or reset, or the HTML content of the associated label element if the element is an input of type radio or checkbox.
Code examples:

Initialize the button with the label option specified:

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$( ".selector" ).button({
  label: "custom label"
});

Get or set the label option, after initialization:

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// Getter
var label = $( ".selector" ).button( "option", "label" );
 
// Setter
$( ".selector" ).button( "option", "label", "custom label" );

text 

Type: Boolean
Default: true
Whether to show the label. When set to false no text will be displayed, but the icons option must be enabled, otherwise the text option will be ignored.
Code examples:

Initialize the button with the text option specified:

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$( ".selector" ).button({
  text: false
});

Get or set the text option, after initialization:

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// Getter
var text = $( ".selector" ).button( "option", "text" );
 
// Setter
$( ".selector" ).button( "option", "text", false );

Methods

destroy()Returns: jQuery (plugin only)

Removes the button functionality completely. This will return the element back to its pre-init state.
  • This method does not accept any arguments.
Code examples:

Invoke the destroy method:

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$( ".selector" ).button( "destroy" );

disable()Returns: jQuery (plugin only)

Disables the button.
  • This method does not accept any arguments.
Code examples:

Invoke the disable method:

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$( ".selector" ).button( "disable" );

enable()Returns: jQuery (plugin only)

Enables the button.
  • This method does not accept any arguments.
Code examples:

Invoke the enable method:

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$( ".selector" ).button( "enable" );

option( optionName )Returns: Object

Gets the value currently associated with the specified optionName.
  • optionName
    Type: String
    The name of the option to get.
Code examples:

Invoke the method:

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var isDisabled = $( ".selector" ).button( "option", "disabled" );

option()Returns: PlainObject

Gets an object containing key/value pairs representing the current button options hash.
  • This signature does not accept any arguments.
Code examples:

Invoke the method:

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var options = $( ".selector" ).button( "option" );

option( optionName, value )Returns: jQuery (plugin only)

Sets the value of the button option associated with the specified optionName.
  • optionName
    Type: String
    The name of the option to set.
  • value
    Type: Object
    A value to set for the option.
Code examples:

Invoke the method:

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$( ".selector" ).button( "option", "disabled", true );

option( options )Returns: jQuery (plugin only)

Sets one or more options for the button.
  • options
    Type: Object
    A map of option-value pairs to set.
Code examples:

Invoke the method:

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$( ".selector" ).button( "option", { disabled: true } );

refresh()Returns: jQuery (plugin only)

Refreshes the visual state of the button. Useful for updating button state after the native element's checked or disabled state is changed programmatically.
  • This method does not accept any arguments.
Code examples:

Invoke the refresh method:

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$( ".selector" ).button( "refresh" );

widget()Returns: jQuery

Returns a jQuery object containing the element visually representing the button.
  • This method does not accept any arguments.
Code examples:

Invoke the widget method:

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var widget = $( ".selector" ).button( "widget" );

Events

create( event, ui )Type: buttoncreate

Triggered when the button is created.

Note: The ui object is empty but included for consistency with other events.

Code examples:

Initialize the button with the create callback specified:

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$( ".selector" ).button({
  create: function( event, ui ) {}
});

Bind an event listener to the buttoncreate event:

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$( ".selector" ).on( "buttoncreate", function( event, ui ) {} );

Examples:

A simple jQuery UI Button

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<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <title>button demo</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="./code.jquery.com/ui/1.10.4/themes/smoothness/jquery-ui.css">
  <script src="./code.jquery.com/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
  <script src="./code.jquery.com/ui/1.10.4/jquery-ui.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
 
<button>Button label</button>
 
<script>
$( "button" ).button();
</script>
 
</body>
</html>

Demo:

A simple jQuery UI Buttonset

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<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <title>button demo</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="./code.jquery.com/ui/1.10.4/themes/smoothness/jquery-ui.css">
  <script src="./code.jquery.com/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
  <script src="./code.jquery.com/ui/1.10.4/jquery-ui.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
 
<form>
  <fieldset>
    <legend>Favorite jQuery Project</legend>
    <div id="radio">
      <input type="radio" id="sizzle" name="project">
      <label for="sizzle">Sizzle</label>
 
      <input type="radio" id="qunit" name="project" checked="checked">
      <label for="qunit">QUnit</label>
 
      <input type="radio" id="color" name="project">
      <label for="color">Color</label>
    </div>
  </fieldset>
</form>
 
<script>
$( "#radio" ).buttonset();
</script>
 
</body>
</html>

Demo: